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Indonesia's small-scale palm oil farmers are not acquiring the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil's (RSPO) green certification as environmentally friendly producers because it is expensive costing around Rp 1.5 million ($159) a hectare. The cost could be reduced if regional administrations were able to dispense land certificates for plantations. The farmers also need to get a land certificate from the National Land Agency (BPN) as the requirement to obtain RSPO certification which unfortunately, most farmers have yet to get it. Small-scale farmers own about 3.3 million hectares of palm oil plantations - around 46 per cent of the country's 7.7 million hectares - and 80 per cent of the plantations had yet to be certified. The other factor discouraging farmers from certifying was the fact that there are no premiums offered by the market for certified palm oil. The RSPO has said it would investigate how proceeds from the trade in sustainable palm oil can be used to facilitate certification of small holders.
Ekawati, A., 2009. Indonesia's Small-Scale Palm Oil Farmers Finding Green Certification Costly. The Jakarta Globe, http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/ (17 November 2009). |
